Xavier University Exhibit

University Library Prize Finalists for First Year Seminars Undergraduate

2019

Bonnie and Clyde: Exaggeration Rooted in Truth

Maggie Schroeder

Follow this and additional works at: https://www.exhibit.xavier.edu/library_prize Schroeder 1

Maggie Schroeder

Dr. O’Leary

Villains and Antiheroes

5 December 2019

Bonnie and Clyde: Exaggeration Rooted in Truth

Bonnie and Clyde are established pop culture icons, and they’ve inspired countless

interpretations of the glamorous or underdog criminal romance myth. But how has their

reputation changed over time, and how does their reputation affect the way we discuss the

infamous duo? When my group set out to unpack their story, we decided that four themes define

Bonnie and Clyde’s legacy: criminals, romance, underdogs, and idols. While all are rooted in

truth, each theme has drastically changed how we think about Bonnie and Clyde.

The most grounded theme is their story as criminals; after all, Bonnie and Clyde murdered

thirteen people and robbed banks and stores all around the country (“Bonnie and Clyde” FBI).

The couple was, without a doubt, criminal, though evidence suggests that they weren’t talented

in their career choice; one report found that “their largest haul was probably less than $1500”

(Ruth), and they often struggled to get by. But while the truth may be surprisingly

underwhelming, 1930s journalists, who were “not about to let facts get in the way of a good

story” (Guinn 135), sought entertaining and engaging stories to sell; with a smidge of hyperbole,

Bonnie and Clyde’s adventures in crime served well as a distraction for readers. When

researching and reading depression era newspapers about the couple, I found it necessary to keep

in mind the goal of the journalist—to entertain, not necessarily to report accurately—and to

consider this goal when forming my own opinions about Bonnie and Clyde. Schroeder 2

It’s also worth considering how the duo’s family and friends influenced the public’s

perception of Bonnie and Clyde as criminal. In the aftermath of the ambush, the remaining gang

tried to shape their story to downplay the criminal element. For example, Blanche Barrow, a

member of the gang and Clyde Barrow’s sister-in-law, characterizes their crimes as necessary for

survival: “When money was needed, some small place was robbed. When a car was needed, one

was stolen. When guns and ammunition were needed, some armory was burglarized at night”

(Barrow). By writing in the passive voice and neglecting to mention their grisliest crimes (such

as murder), Barrow avoids pinning the understated crimes on any one member and argues that

the Barrow Gang only took what they needed to survive—a sentiment shared by Clyde Barrow’s

poems, where he writes, “We donte want to hurt anyone / but we have to steal to eat / and if its a

shootout to live / then thats the way it will have to bee.” (Hays and McFall). When Arthur Penn’s

1967 Bonnie and Clyde came out, Clyde Barrow’s family tried to sue, claiming that “the film

“maliciously and deliberately vilified [Clyde and Bonnie] and those connected with them”

(Guinn 364). But because Bonnie and Clyde had become public figures, the claim was dismissed

(Guinn 364). I thought it was interesting that fame prevented Clyde’s family from shaping his

story; in becoming public figures, Bonnie and Clyde handed their reputations over to the public

domain to vilify or glorify as it sees fit.

Despite Blanche Barrow and the gang’s best efforts, the public continued to steal Bonnie and

Clyde’s story and warp it into a new and exaggerated criminal image. For example, a 1934 New

York Times article detailing Bonnie and Clyde’s deaths describes the final ambush in sensationalized detail: “While the wheels of the wrecked machine still whirled, the officers,

taking no chances with the gunman who had tricked them so often, poured another volley of

bullets into the machine” (“Barrow and woman” 1). This over-the-top imagery central to the Schroeder 3

duo’s image evolved from page to screen when movies became pop culture’s preferred medium

for exploring Bonnie and Clyde’s legend. In Arthur Penn’s 1967 classic film Bonnie and Clyde, the couple confidently robs banks and shoots their way out of death defying-situations before going down together in a final slow-motion montage, which one article describes as “a prolonged and excruciating…spasm of gore. It was literally overkill” (Nashawaty). When watching the movie, I found that the final show of violence fulfilled its purpose—it was dramatic, brutal, and hard to watch, and as a result, I sympathized with the couple. Despite my reaction to the film, I did not expect to learn about the controversy of the movie. When first released, the movie’s violence and crime split critics; most famously, Bosley Crowther of the New York Times ripped

Penn’s film to pieces, declaring it “a cheap piece of bald-faced slapstick comedy…this blending

of farce with brutal killings is as pointless as it is lacking in taste” (Scott). But while the critics’ reviews disagreed with the movie’s glorified violence and crime, the youth of the 1960s adopted these themes as “a rallying cry for the burgeoning counterculture” (Wilkinson, “The bloody,

exhilarating). Today, Bonnie and Clyde is considered a classic, “numbered among the first 100

films included in the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry and cited as an influence on

everything from The Godfather to The Departed” (Wilkinson, “The bloody, exhilarating”).

Bonnie and Clyde’s transformation from a loathed flop to a classic inspiration is a testament to

the complexity of historically villainous characters and our portrayals of those characters in the

media.

Of course, just as infamous as their criminal activity is Bonnie and Clyde’s love. Throughout

and after their lifetimes, the romance of Bonnie and Clyde fueled their fame. It surprised me to

learn that Bonnie was already married when she met Clyde because the duo’s devotion to each

other is at the core of their reputation. When researching, it wasn’t difficult to find evidence of Schroeder 4

Bonnie and Clyde’s love for each other. Bonnie’s poems were the clearest source, especially

when she writes about how “Some day they'll go down together, And they'll bury them side by

side” (Hays and McFall). Bonnie’s words of doomed love echo a consistent point in modern sources: their devotion to each other is unmistakable and genuine. When Bonnie’s poems were

published, the public took notice and sympathized with their plight. As one article put it, “Their poems helped turn them into real people again and show them as doomed lovers and partners in crime” (Hays and McFall). Because of the doomed romance haunting the duo, audiences connected with Bonnie and Clyde as more than criminals on the run.

It’s interesting to consider Bonnie’s part in the love story as it relates to their criminal activities. As we read primary sources, we noticed that, while Clyde’s name appeared in all the headlines, Bonnie was reduced to “Dallas girl,” “woman friend,” or “Clyde’s frequent companion.” We learned that, at the time, the public didn’t consider women capable of criminal activity of their own choice; instead, Bonnie was considered “just a silly love-addled girl who couldn’t be expected to know better” (Guinn 137). But it’s exactly this “silly love-addled girl” who captured the public imagination. As one article put it, Bonnie and Clyde “were glamorized because of the Bonnie element — lovers on the run outside of society just really attracted the public” (Rosenwald). What’s especially intriguing is Bonnie’s transformation from a “silly love- addled girl” to a femme fatale figure and how her transformation shaped the romantic narrative.

While the 1930s public saw Bonnie as Clyde’s (perhaps unwilling) subordinate partner, Bonnie and Clyde-inspired writing in the 1950s began to feature “Bonnie rather than Clyde as the leader…she was the kill-crazy criminal mastermind, and he the love-struck minion” (Guinn).

This role reversal is the opposite of the opinion in the 1930s, and I found it interesting to learn about how the public’s perception of Bonnie and Clyde’s romance changed who got the starring Schroeder 5 role and how the leader of the couple influenced pop culture’s ideas about their romance and relationship.

The evolution of Bonnie and Clyde’s story speaks to a larger narrative about the subjective and contextual nature of reputations; once the public claimed Bonnie and Clyde as their own story, their reality became whatever the newspapers and movies decided, even if the story the public told strayed from the wishes of the pair’s surviving family. To mark someone as a villain or a hero without considering the whole picture can be detrimental to their reputation and character, a problem the surviving Barrows identified and failed to conquer when suing Arthur

Penn. In the case of Bonnie and Clyde, however, I would argue that society’s judgements have been (for the most part) favorable in sustaining their reputations as idols and inspirations. The countless repetitions of their story have been re-contextualized to explore unique perspectives, such as that of Queen and Slim, the most recent interpretation, which approaches the Bonnie and

Clyde myth in the context of racism and police brutality. One review calls the film a “Bonnie and

Clyde tale worth telling today — not just for how it calls back to our past, but how it dwells with our uncomfortable present” (Wilkinson, “Queen and Slim”). Queen and Slim subverts standard all-American Bonnie and Clyde myth, and, as a result, it inspires a conversation about uncomfortable modern issues, demonstrating the continued relevance and importance of these characters’ stories today.

Overall, the ideas behind Bonnie and Clyde’s reputation are more closely related to sympathetic antiheroes in historical fiction than they are to reality; while rooted in truth, the extent to which public perception has influenced their image has resulted in a hyperbolic story of misguided folk heroes that has achieved legendary status. The couple’s mix of villainous actions

(such as crime) backed by perceived heroic motives (such as love and survival) creates a Schroeder 6 glamorous, violent, and tragic story that causes the audience to sympathize with their struggles while condemning the gang’s violent actions.

Schroeder 7

Works Cited

“Barrow and woman are slain by police in Louisiana trap.” The New York Times, 24 May 1934.

Nyti.ms/326VtRq.

Barrow, Blanche Caldwell., and John Neal Phillips. My Life with Bonnie & Clyde. University of

Oklahoma Press, 2005.

Bonnie and Clyde. Directed by Arthur Penn, performances by Warren Beatty and Faye

Dunaway, Warner Brothers, 1967.

“Bonnie and Clyde.” FBI, FBI, 18 May 2016, www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/bonnie-and-

clyde.

Guinn, Jeff. Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde. Simon &

Schuster, 2010. EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cat01905a&AN=ohiolink.b29368269

&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Hays, Clark, and Kathleen McFall. Bonnie & Clyde: Radioactive. Midwest Book Review, 2019.

“‘Here’s the story of Bonnie and Clyde’: Gangster duo’s poems go up for auction.”

Weekend Edition Saturday. NPR, WBEZ, Chicago, 2 March 2019.

Nashawaty, Chris. “They’re young, they’re in love, and they kill people: A look back at how

Bonnie and Clyde revolutionized Hollywood.” Entertainment Weekly, 11 August 2017,

ew.com/movies/2017/08/11/bonnie-and-clyde-50th-anniversary/

“Romeo and Juliet vs Bonnie and Clyde. Epic Rap Battles of History.” YouTube, uploaded by

ERB, 17 November 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV7xJ73_eeM. Schroeder 8

Rosenwald, Michael S. “Bonnie and Clyde were Depression-era Kardashians: A source of public

fascination.” Washington Post, 29 March 2019,

www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/03/29/bonnie-clyde-were-depression-era-

kardashians-glamorous-also-murderous/.

Scott, A. O. “Two Outlaws, Blasting Holes in the Screen.” The New York Times, 12 August

2007, www.nytimes.com/2007/08/12/movies/12scot.html.\

Wilkinson, Alissa. “Queen & Slim retells the Bonnie and Clyde myth as a story about blackness

in America.” Vox, 27 November 2019,

www.vox.com/culture/2019/11/27/20984281/queen-slim-review-bonnie-clyde

---. “The bloody, exhilarating Bonnie and Clyde broke taboos when it hit screens 50 years ago.”

Vox, 12 August 2017, www.vox.com/culture/2017/8/12/16107082/movie-of-week-

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